Press

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KEXP"Recordings of Gísladóttir and Sverrisson’s collaborative works have yet to materialize, making their performance at KEX a special treat. Their set was completely improvisational, creating their cacophonous sounds right before our eyes. The two hardly ever connected their eyes while they played, but never did they feel out of sync. What's even more astounding is how the two blended so well while taking drastically different approaches with their instruments."Ensemble New Babylon"The young Icelandic composer Bára Gísladóttir (* 1989) is characterized by her special sound and characteristic transfer of moments to her works of contemporary music. Mesmerizing elements alternate with sounds reminiscent of a huge metal ship sliding down the waves. Then again, she uses contemporary techniques to capture something intangible, such as the fear or wonder of a childhood moment, which deeply touches. Bára Gísladóttir is one of the few musicians who actually leads Icelandic music - in the most challenging and provocative way."

Beehype: Iceland's best albums of 2017[About 'Mass for some':] "It’s challenging, mesmerising stuff: her chosen instrument sounds like it’s being thoroughly mistreated, with violently snapped strings and aggressive bowing that groans like twisting metal—it sounds, at times, like a ship slipping down beneath the waves."​Johnson's Rambler: Sounds of the Year 2017"Gísladóttir’s piece is a real gem, though: an evocation of the day, when she was aged eight, when her father returned home with a car (the eponymous Suzuki) that she knew he couldn’t afford. The way it used contemporary techniques (noise, fragmentation, silence) to capture the incomprehension, anxiety and wonder of that childhood moment was deeply, deeply touching."

The Reykjavík Grapevine"She sings, cackles and mutters into the mic as she whips up a discomfiting, grating cacophony that sounds like nothing so much as the groan of a huge metal ship sliding beneath the waves."

​"...the concert with Esbjerg Ensemble opened my eyes for yet a young Icelander, Bára Gísladóttir, that also had a painful experience to process, but did it with a mixture of sincerity and strong artistic grip in the piece 'Suzuki Baleno II'. Pain became a piece, without the pain getting lost."

"This year, there were representetives from 29 broadcasting services, from four continents. The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service's contribution were the pieces Aequilibria by Anna Þorvaldsdóttir and Otoconia by Bára Gísladóttir."

The Guardian"Her performance is both arthouse – a woman sawing away at her instrument with little attention paid to such niceties as accessibility and melody – and thrilling. She does to the double bass what Hendrix did to the electric guitar, using it to coax out thrillingly strange new sounds."

The Line of Best Fit"Bára crawls onto the stage, hides herself behind her contrabass, and proceeds to pick and scratch at it while kicking her feet up, hissing and screeching for a good five minutes. Then she finally stands up and starts strumming her instrument nonsensically, producing what can hardly be described as notes. She then continues with the saxophone player to produce noise, but purposeful noise, plucking her strings and chanting in Italian to sounds played from her computer that sounded like the end of the world. For the next song she gaffa taped parts of her contrabass and played it like she was trying to communicate with whales underwater."

The 405"Both albums manage to maintain an improvisatory character despite what is almost certainly a methodical compositional process, which bodes well for the transition to a live environment, as do reports that Gísladóttir sometimes lies down on stage behind her double bass during performances; should be an enthralling hour."

​The Reykjavík Grapevine: "In a dimly lit, pin-drop quiet Mengi, young composer and musician Bára Gísladóttir lies onstage on her back, behind her double bass. Barely visible, she starts to make sound—a breathy growling, that builds into a throaty roar, and then a howl. Bára battles with the strings a little, and then starts building again, making a guttural gurgle that builds into a scream. The audience is enthralled, some sitting in silence, whether stunned, hypnotised or giggling with bewilderment."